Pin-It, Make-It, Eat-It Party

Last week, four of us girls got together for a Pinterest-inspired, tail-gate themed cooking party. Personally, I could eat my weight in appetizers, so I was slightly extremely stoked about this little shin-dig. Here's what we made:

1. Sopapilla Cheesecake
2. Corn Dog Bites
3. Feta Mozzarella and Spinach Crescent Rolls
4. Crispy edamame
5. Summer Peach and Balsamic Pizza (*FAVORITE!*)
6. Homemade Samoas
7. Bourbon Whiskey Meatballs
8. Baked Cheese Balls

Oh. YUM. 

I want everything again. Especially that pizza (go Andrea) ;)

Teagan was a trooper... all that cooking just wore her out!

It's a tough life at 5 weeks old... :)

Double Dresser Makeover!

Hilarious really that I'm the one making a post like this (being that I have never been described as handy, crafty, or patient), but when I considered redoing two dressers this summer and searched the blogosphere for a good how-to, I couldn't find one! Well, not to the degree that a type-A person like me needs. So instead, I asked a bagillion people for their thoughts, borrowed some tools from our super sweet and handy neighbors, asked my mom to join me for the day of fun, and SET TO WORK! 

The best "before" picture I got. Over-eager to get started I suppose.

Dresser #2 semi-before picture

Drawers- how bout that fancy liner?! 

The goods from the neighbors. How lucky are we to have neighbors that let us borrow their tools AND bake for us?!

So this is a Black & Decker Power Sander. I highly recommend renting, buying, or borrowing one rather than hand-sanding. Unless you are a patient person. I like for things to get done. Quickly. So hand-sanding is not for me. :)

Sweet neighbor, Sarah- the baker and the wife of the power-tool owner. ;)

We took off the original hinges and used spray paint to make them look new.

This came recommended by my friend Andrea, who is a dresser re-doer pro. She turned this dresser into this changing table for the nursery, and has used the Rust-oleum on some of her other handy projects. :)

Rust-oleum, Metallic Paint and Primer in One

Shade = Oil Rubbed Bronze

Sweet mama :)

Brand new! LOVE this stuff!

Now for the sanding- I recommend getting a larger pack to be safe (I think I used around 10 on the two dressers). If you look on the back, it will tell you the recommended "grit" for your project. I went with 100 grit for prepping furniture for paint because that was exactly what I wanted to do. :)

This is actually after I figured out that Eric (power-tool-owner neighbor) already HAD a sander sheet on here- no wonder mine kept flying off when I first started! ...haha, yes- the base of the sander is metal-looking, so check to see if yours has a worn-out sander sheet left on it before you try to add another one of top- because it won't work with two. :)

NOW I get it! haha... mom and I got a good laugh out of my novice mistake.

Getting ready to spray the next set of hinges!

Oh yeah- time for a refresher. :)

LOVE this paint color! 

Home Depot Behr- Anonymous

Also stolen from Andrea- the color of her nursery walls. :)

Before sanding...

After sanding- there are still some brown shades, but the wood was smooth. You can pretty much feel when it's ready (I guess...  haha, our finished product still looks good!)

Make sure you thoroughly wipe down the wood before painting- damp rag, then dry rag.

Time to dry! 

(Plus my secret shot of the backyard that's looking a million times better these days! Yay for new grass and a fire pit... boo for summer water bills.)

We let them dry for a few hours outside, then brought them inside (still all separated) and let them dry some more while we went to Tin Lizzy's and Menchie's. YUM!

When we got back, we moved the pieces back into the bedroom, screwed the hinges back on, and put the drawers back in place!

Yippee!!!

Hooray!!! We did it!

Thanks mama for all your help! And neighbors and friends for all your advice. :)

Questions? Ask away. I can try to answer. :) But if I can do this, anyone can.

Classroom Makeover: Trailer Edition

I have said goodbye to five years of teaching third grade- a bitter-sweet goodbye I might add. This year, I'll start a new journey as a Discovery pullout teacher. Discovery is the title of our gifted program, so I'll be teaching students through cross-curricular enrichment projects throughout the year.

This week was our first week of school with kids, but as a "specials" teacher now, my students won't start until tomorrow. It was a strange feeling not having kids on the first day of school! I will miss getting to know a homeroom and celebrating different holiday parties with them in class, but I think this new step will be an exciting one!

So far, one of my favorite new roles (as odd as this is going to sound) is lunch duty. Yep. I like lunch duty. What can I say, I love hearing napkins called "nakkins" and "napcams" from the kindergartners. I love getting squeezes from the little first graders after opening their ketchup packets (who knew such a simple act was hug-worthy?!) I love helping the itty-bitties recognize the differences between a ketchup packet and a French dressing packet since they can't read the letters yet (because what 5-year-old wants french dressing on their french fries, right?!) And I love catching up with my old students as they come in for lunch each day. It's a pretty sweet gig if you ask me! Although I'm one week in- so check back with me in October. ;)

Here's my new second home! It's a bit down-sized from last year's room but I like the cozy feel. :)

I passed on 50+ labeled book bins loaded with books to other teachers since the students are supposed to work on logic, puzzles, and games when they finish their work... but I had to hold on to a few- it just didn't feel like "me" without some books in my room!